is making it easier for congress to rack up huge deficits. he also argued for the aggressive bond buying program designed to reduce interest rates and boost hiring. darren gersh reports. >> reporter: you can expect to be hearing a lot from ben bernanke is the coming months. having pushed the federal reserve to adopt an aggressive and open-ended asset purchase program, the chairman is now defending what he did and why. and bernanke says he won't change course before many more americans are back at work. >> we expect that a highly accommodative stance of monetary policy will remain appropriate for a considerable time after the economy strengthens. >> reporter: economists at barclays read the chairman's remarks to mean the central bank will keep buying treasury bonds at current levels into the coming year. >> it represents urgency for the fed. obviously, purchasing at about $85 billion per month and operating across a wide range of interest rate markets suggests the fed is indeed trying to push this faster while unemployment remains high. >> reporter: conservatives have gone after bernanke

cuts as the government tries to reduce its heavy deficit. as turmoil and tension in the euro-zone escalates, there remain questions about the longevity of the euro currency. today, italian prime minister mario monti said he doesn't think any country will leave the union. erika miller reports from new york. >> reporter: as italian prime minister mario monti left today's event, he dodged reporters and walked straight to a waiting car. earlier at the forum, it was a different story. calm, cool and collected, monti stayed carefully on message. he made it clear italy is better off as part of the european union. >> the euro brought to italy a single currency, shared with all the others, that is very important economically. >> reporter: monti also emphasized the benefits of the common currency for other member countries, like germany. >> thanks to the euro, germany was able and is able to have a huge european market free from the risk of competitive devaluations. >> reporter: euro-zone worries have roared back this week, thanks to violent demonstrations in spain. today, the spanish

about global demand. >> platinum and palladium demand is sort of in a deficit. you do have supply. you would say, well, maybe we're not producing enough. these are very difficult metals to produce. the supply constraint is such that you can't just kick new production on. as i say, it comes out of south africa. it comes out of russia, and our mine in montana. so the two metals are used primarily for the same product. and that is catalytic converters in cars. you have kind of a surging market for cars. you have the regulatory requirements stepping up in the cars. and you've got sort of this price-driven move from platinum to palladium, so the madeium is getting the bigger mrketn the cars than platinum has had in the past. so essentially the demand is really quite strong. >> tom: frank, with that cupid of demand outlook for platinum, how do you explain the price differential between gold and platinum. traditionally, as you are well aware, gold is priced per ounce below platinum but right now gold is about $100 above platinum. >> people are looking forward and saying they want something wi

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